Week 1: Introduction and Contextual Statement

Welcome to the #cmaltcmooc – if this is your first, second or even third iteration of the CMALT cMOOC it’s great to have you participating with us! The cMOOC is about connecting people and sharing your experiences as we explore CMALT accreditation.

This first week involves setup and introductions – we hope you’ll join us on a journey of establishing (or enhancing) your online professional profile in teaching and learning and becoming part of the global #cmaltcmooc network of practitioners and researchers in the scholarship of technology enhanced learning (SOTEL).

Choose a social learning theory on which to develop a short statement of your understanding and approach to using learning technologies in education. Post this to your blog using the #cmaltcmooc hashtag. Explore how your contextual statement could be presented using a variety of embedded technologies – you could use a short video to introduce yourself and your teaching philosophy via Clips (iOS) or Instagram. A contextual statement is a critical element of a CMALT portfolio – it is not assessed, but must be included. You can do this quickly as a video reflection if you like – see some of the examples in the #CMALTcMOOC YouTube Playlist from 2017 for example: https://youtu.be/y8vH2Bh6Z4U.

Share your example of a Contextual Statement on the #CMALTcMOOC G+ Community and the Project Bank

Create a research biography and establish a profile on researchgate.net, link this profile into your WordPress blog.

Reflect upon this process on your WordPress blog.

From the CMALT Guidelines:

Contextual statement

The portfolio should commence with a contextual statement – the kind of thing you might write in a cover letter for a job application. It should provide a concise biography, outlining your career history and current role(s), highlighting briefly the operational context in which you work or have worked, and reflecting on why you are submitting your portfolio for CMALT and how this relates to your future career aspirations. This section is not assessed, but can be very helpful for the assessors as they approach the rest of your portfolio.

We’re running the #CMALTcMOOC again starting 24 September – so it’ll be great to have you on board – please encourage your colleagues who may benefit from becoming part of the community and the journey to signup at https://cmaltcmooc.wordpress.com/contact/

The CMALT cMOOC aims to mentor and support applications for CMALT accreditation. CMALT is the Certified Member of the Association of Learning Technologies (available to either ALT or ASCILITE members https://www.alt.ac.uk/certified-membership) and recognises experience and expertise in the use of technologies for learning. This is available to academic and allied staff who are interested in or have successfully integrated the use of learning technologies in the course(s) they teach. We have developed the CMALT cMOOC (https://cmaltcmooc.wordpress.com) as a 7-week online support programme/network, and the next iteration of this starts on September 24 – signup at https://cmaltcmooc.wordpress.com/contact/

We have also developed the SoTEL NZ Research Cluster as a support network and the SoTEL NZ Symposium as a showcase and networking event for groups of educators exploring the scholarship of technology enhanced learning: https://sotel.nz

The research cluster is open to new groups beyond NZ, and the 2019 Symposium call for participation is now open.

The #SoTELNZ and #ASCILITEMLSIG Webinar series starts this Friday May 18, 2018 at 11:30 AM (GMT+12) with @rogked exploring mobile game based learning: Join the discussion or view https://youtu.be/SIB1c7-r2cE

This week we cover an overview of digital publishing formats and CMALT portfolio submission requirements. We hope you have enjoyed your participation in #CMALTcMOOC 2018, and although the 7 weeks finishes at the end of this week, this is just the beginning for the community that has been established! We hope that you now have an understanding of what is required for producing a CMALT portfolio, and encourage you to continue working on developing and sharing your portfolios. You are invited to further PD cMOOCs such as

You are also invited to take part in a final participant survey to give us feedback. This week we will also host our final Participant Hangout reflecting upon their CMALT cMOOC experience.

cMOOC Feedback Invitation:

We want to get your feedback on how we can improve #CMALTcMOOC. We have an information sheet, consent form, and online survey for your feedback. Also, if you are willing to let us use your CMALT portfolio as an example there is also a portfolio showcase opt-in. The links are:

Future Plans

While the “Future Plans” section is not assessed you must complete it. This can be as detailed as you like. The purpose of this is to help you plan for your professional development; it will also be useful when preparing to meet your continuing professional development requirement to remain in good standing.

This week we explore participants’ individual areas of specialisation in learning technologies. Use the Project Bank https://cmaltcmooc.mosomelt.org/project-bank/ to share a Blog post or VODCast describing an area of specialisation relevant to your context.

We will also schedule a Hangout later in the week where participants can discuss and share their specialisations.

Reflect upon why you have chosen this specialisation?

Comment on one another’s PODCasts or VODCasts giving feedback.

As well as the core areas, CMALT candidates are required to demonstrate evidence of independent practice in one or more specialist options. This reflects the fact that, although there are common areas of work for learning technologists, practice is extremely diverse and everyone specialises in something different.

Your specialist topic should reflect an area where you have particular expertise. This may be unique to you or common across your team, but goes beyond what would be expected of any learning technologist.

In describing your specialist option you should refer to the CMALT principles and values:

A commitment to exploring and understanding the interplay between technology and learning.

A commitment to keep up to date with new technologies.

An empathy with and willingness to learn from colleagues from different backgrounds and specialist options.

A commitment to communicate and disseminate effective practice.

Because these are specialist options you should be clear what makes your work distinct from common practice; many people teach on online courses, but designing and delivering fully online courses requires specific skills and would be considered specialist. . Similarly, many teachers provide blended learning, but developing and sharing guidelines for such practice or working with a distinctive blend of contexts might distinguish your work as specialist. It may be that your specialist option is common amongst the group that you work in as you all work in a similar area; that is perfectly acceptable.Evidence for your specialist activity is likely to be very specific but could include: reports, papers or presentations you have written; this could be backed up by a job description plus written statements supporting your specialist knowledge from colleagues, clients or managers; active membership of professional or other bodies; certificates of completion of specialist training programmes or courses.

Collaboration and communication are key attributes for educators and our graduates. Laurillard et al., (2013) emphasise the benefits of collaborative curriculum design and the role of modelling collaboration and communication skills to our students. Weaver et al., (2012) also argue for the value of collaborative research to improve teaching practice. The fourth core area of a CMALT portfolio requires CMALT candidates to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in communication through evidence and reflection upon working with others.

Use the Project Bank to share examples of how you collaborate with your peers – this could be an interactive Google Map of research presentations or a team project, a G+ Community, a social media hashtag, a Twitter ‘Moment’ of a collaborative event, etc… Also a reminder to create an ORCID profile and share it with the #CMALTcMOOC G+ Community if you have not yet done so at http://orcid.org

We will schedule another group G+ Hangout for a live discussion this Thursday for UK participants and Friday morning 10:30am for NZ/AU participants – the archived Hangouts on YouTube are another form of evidence of “Collaboration”!

Hints:

In your CMALT portfolio: Evidence statements could describe the way in which your work involves collaboration, for example through participation in a team or acting as an interface to other groups.

Relevant evidence would include reflection on collaborations with others, reports outlining your activity within a team process, how you have brokered support for a particular initiative (for example from a technical or legal support service) or how you have worked with others to solve problems.Where your evidence involved collaboration, please acknowledge the contribution of others. You may also chose to discuss how you select appropriate forms of communication.Think how some of the tools we have explored throughout #cmaltcmooc could be used to provide evidence of communication and collaboration – for example a collaborative Vyclone video of you and your peers discussing an issue relevant to a course, or an archived Google Plus Hangout On Air with a guest lecturer or a working group, etc…